South of Congress Street on the west side of the Santa Cruz River near downtown Tucson was a Pima Indian village. This site, at the base of Sentinel Peak — today it is called ‘A’ Mountain — is known to have been inhabited since at least 1000 B.C. Located by a once-flowing spring that emptied into the Santa Cruz, American Indians called the village Stjukson (spelling of the word varies widely; the Spanish transliterated it to Tucson).